Clark et al. (in progress) have utilized Scott Consigny's examination of Aristotelian and Ciceronian topoi to argue that "any technological artifact . . . can be seen as both a tool--something functional or working in the world, and as a realm--a reconceptualized worldview with the theory/technology foregrounded."

Hypertext provides us an immediate example of both tool and realm. Hypertextual programs can be seen as tools for composition, while hypertext is its own realm of writing, requiring unique ways of thinking and composing.